Can granting legal rights to nature actually make ecosystems healthier? Around the world, rivers, forests, and other natural systems are increasingly being recognized as rights-bearing entities. This paper examines what that shift means in practice, drawing on examples from countries including Ecuador, Colombia, New Zealand, Spain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, and the Netherlands.

Rights of Nature can strengthen legal protection, give ecosystems a formal voice in decision-making, improve coordination between institutions, and encourage earlier action when environmental harm is possible. However, the available evidence is still too limited to conclude that legal recognition on its own leads to measurable ecological recovery.

The paper argues that the real impact depends on what happens after rights are recognized. Strong institutions, effective guardianship, adequate resources, clear implementation, accountability, and cooperation across different levels of government are all essential. In other words, giving nature rights may create important opportunities for change, but those rights only become meaningful when they are translated into everyday governance and practical ecological protection – while remaining aware of the limits of trying to represent nature through systems designed by humans.

Read the full paper: Martens, P., Venhof, V., van der Meer, M., & Robbers, R. (2026). Do Rights of Nature Lead to Healthier Ecosystems? Governance, Planetary Health, and the Boundaries of Legal Reform. Challenges, 17(4), 36. https://doi.org/10.3390/challe17040036